Jon Laird, music director at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Catholic Church in Lake Ridge, VA, spells out the new direction of the parish music program:
As the new music director at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Catholic Church in Lake Ridge, VA, I have recently worked with our pastor, Fr. David Meng, and parochial vicar, Fr. James Searby, to formulate a unified sacred music program at the parish. Since our relatively young parish has relied almost exclusively on Glory & Praise for thirty years, we are beginning a renewal in the area of sacred music, during which we hope to recover the authentic treasury of sacred music which the Church has jealously guarded: the venerable medieval chant, particularly Gregorian; the sacred polyphony of the Renaissance and its descendants through the centuries; a stable repertoire of Latin and English hymnody "rich in theological content"; those newer compositions by composers "profoundly steeped in the sensus Ecclesia" (Pope John Paul II).
In these early stages of our sacred music renewal, many parishioners have expressed excitement; some others have expressed dismay. In order to explain the need for renewal in the parish and the exciting prospects for the future, we have written a letter--published today, the memorial of Pope St. Gregory the Great--to be distributed with this week's bulletin. We hope we have been successful in offering a solid theological foundation for this sacred music renewal, quoting liberally from Church documents and papal writings from Pius X to the present. Included in the letter is a practical and theological analysis of "contemporary Christian music" as it is used in the liturgy; I believe this may be of interest to many.
Read the letter
